Intera Group, a Pleasenton, Calif.-based company, which ironically got its start by operating pay phone booths and selling outdoor advertising for them, said it is now supplementing its lost revenue by doing something more high-tech—beaming promotions to cellphones via Bluetooth. It works like this: Intera installs a network of Bluetooth transmitters in an area it wants to cover, and then it can remotely update campaigns for its customers. Anyone walking by, who has their phone’s Bluetooth set as “discoverable,” will be asked if they’d like to receive a promotion. If they agree, the promotion is downloaded to their phone. In the case of San Francisco’s Hard Rock Cafe, it’s first customer, the promotion typically offers a free souvenir if a customer spends $25 in the restaurant or on merchandise. So far, the results have been impressive. Intera’s CEO Kevin Thornton said up to 25 percent of the people who downloaded the promotions at the Hard Rock Cafe on Fisherman’s Wharf, actually redeemed them. “The consumers likelihood to opt-in is tied to a offer’s brand, location,” he said. Release.

Intera expects to launch 1,000 more locations by the end of the year. Thornton wouldn’t say who their other partners will be, but said that they’ll include shopping malls, gas stations, movie chains and other big box retailers. In the next 90 days, they expect to launch 30 locations in Southern California and 75 more in Northern California.

The big concern with these kind of unsolicited messages is the fear of receiving a virus. Thornton called that “an old issue, that’s gone away,” because Bluetooth has become more secure. But if people are concerned that the promotion is a scam, they won’t download it. In some cases, Thornton said retailers hang signs to tell customers to turn on their Bluetooth functionality to receive an offer, which would help. This type of marketing compares a lot to text message campaigns, however in this case, the service is free to consumers because it doesn’t use a wireless carrier’s network. In addition, it can target passive people who are in the area, but who aren’t interested in interacting with advertisement and may have left their Bluetooth setting on discoverable.